What a difference a few hours makes. Just when California Governor Gavin Newsom thought he had scored a political victory against President Trump, reality came crashing down courtesy of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Thursday night, Clinton-appointed Judge Charles B. Breyer handed Newsom what appeared to be an early Christmas present, ordering Trump to return control of the California National Guard to the Golden State's governor. Breyer claimed Trump's federalization of the Guard was "illegal" and violated both statutory authority and the Tenth Amendment.
“That’s not where we live. We live in response to a monarch. This country was founded in response to a monarch,” Breyer reportedly said at the hearing. “The Constitution is a document of limitations.”
The ruling, of course, was absurd, as the president of the United States has long had the authority to activate the National Guard. Nevertheless, Newsom, predictably, rushed to spike the football.
He even took to the television cameras to gloat.
But Newsom's victory lap lasted about as long as a California power grid during peak summer usage.
Later that same evening, a three-judge panel on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in to restore sanity. The appeals court blocked Breyer's ruling and granted the Trump administration's request for an administrative stay, allowing continued deployment against rioters terrorizing Los Angeles.
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The appeals court's swift action restored Trump's command over at least 4,000 California National Guard troops and several hundred Marines—exactly the federal resources needed to restore order in Newsom's increasingly lawless state.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly didn't mince words about Breyer's overreach: "The court's order is unprecedented and puts our brave federal officials in danger. The district court has no authority to usurp the President's authority as commander in chief."
She's absolutely right. The president exercised his constitutional authority to protect federal buildings and personnel in a city where local leadership has proven incapable of maintaining basic law and order. The Trump administration correctly called Newsom's lawsuit "a crass political stunt endangering American lives."
The appeals court’s lightning-fast intervention speaks volumes about how flimsy Breyer’s ruling really was. The fact that it was overturned so quickly is a glaring indicator of just how off-the-rails and politically charged his decision was. Unfortunately, that’s become par for the course in Trump’s second term—activist judges issuing partisan rulings rooted not in the Constitution, but in their obsession with opposing the president at all costs.
Newsom isn’t taking the news well.
For all his bluster about checking presidential power, Newsom now finds himself checked by a higher court that recognized what should have been obvious: the president has clear constitutional authority as commander in chief to federalize National Guard units when federal interests are at stake.
The Trump administration will undoubtedly seek "ultimate victory" on this issue, as deputy press secretary Kelly promised. But they've already won the most important battle—keeping federal officers and property protected while Los Angeles burns under Newsom's watch.
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